Raleigh, N.C. — Raleigh will install 173 new pay stations for on-street parking beginning the week of Jan. 25, city officials announced Tuesday. 

The new pay stations will be installed throughout the downtown core bounded by Edenton, South, Blount and Harrington streets. The pay stations also will be placed along Glenwood Avenue from Hillsborough Street to Peace Street in the Glenwood South area.

Installment of the pay stations is expected to be complete by mid-March. An additional 20 pay stations will be placed on Hillsborough Street between Oberlin Road and Gardner Street starting in the fall when the Hillsborough Street Roundabouts Project, Phase 1, is expected to be complete.

Duncan Solutions will provide the pay stations to Raleigh for at least eight years. The Duncan VM pay stations will accept nickels, dimes and quarters, and Visa and MasterCard credit card transactions.

Project managers from Duncan Solutions will be in Raleigh the week of Jan. 11 to visit the pay station locations along with city staff. Mounting pads for the pay stations will be installed before Jan. 25. The parking spaces also will be numbered, city officials said.

The city will have a two-week grace period with each installment of the pay stations during which parking enforcement officers will be made available to assist customers with operating the machines and answer any questions. Regular enforcement of other parking-related offenses will continue.

New blue metered parking signs will be put up at pay station locations to provide instructions on how to pay for parking. The signs will replace the current green time zone signs.

The new pay stations will allow downtown visitors to pay for parking time in 15-minute increments, from 15 minutes up to the maximum time allowed for a particular parking time zone. The minimum payment amount for credit card users will be $1.

Parking time restrictions currently in place will not change when the pay stations are installed.

The pay stations generally will not accept payment in any form from 5 p.m. to 8 a.m. on weekdays and all day on weekends and holidays as complimentary parking is provided during those times. However, the pay stations will allow visitors to prepay their parking time on weekdays only starting at 6 a.m. All prepaid time will take effect starting at 8 a.m.

Duncan Solutions VM pay stations use green cell zinc-air battery technology that contain no lead, creates no greenhouse gas and is classified as non-hazardous for disposal, city officials said. To save energy, down-time maintenance costs caused by mechanical failure and to reduce litter, VM pay stations do not print receipts.